He blitzed Antonio DeMarco in November, a fight that was attractive on paper. And, way back in March 2011, he dominated current WBC featherweight champ Daniel Ponce De Leon in his breakout win. In between, the Cincinnati fighter has dethroned a handful of good, decent fighters and done so with flair.

The questions about Broner have more to do with the type of fighter he has beaten -- one-dimensional, easy-to-hit, unimaginative, and often physically smaller -- that makes some experts wary of calling him boxing's next big thing.

Unfortunately, Gavin Rees of Wales is precisely the type of nondescript slugger that will invite continued criticisms of Broner's limited opposition as "The Problem" defends his WBC lightweight title at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City (8:30 p.m. today, HBO).

No competition

Take Eloy Perez, the Californian who challenged Broner for the WBO junior lightweight title a year ago. Officially, both were the same weight, 130 pounds. And, officially, Broner only had inch-long advantages in height and reach. Throw in the fact that Perez was undefeated going in, and it looked like a good test for Broner.

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But when the two got in the ring, the physical disparity was obvious. Broner, 25-0 (21 KOs), looked a weight class bigger. No, make that two weight classes bigger. Any anticipation this fight may have had was lost during the mid-ring introductions. Perez was also overmatched in terms of speed and pure athletic ability, making the "fight" almost unfair.

Perez had no chance, and he predictably fell in the fourth round.

Next up was once-promising Vicente Escobedo. By the time Broner got to him in July, Escobedo was not a real threat and fell in five. Before that, poor Jason Litzau never had a chance and was wiped out in a round. And the ordinary Vicente Martin Rodriguez was easily dispatched in three.

DeMarco was a different story. He had won a world title, via a bloody and exciting stoppage of Argentina's talented Jorge Linares, and followed that up with quickie stoppages of Juárez's Mickey Roman and John Molina.

But, once again, the difference in pure ability made it a runaway win for Broner (TKO 8). DeMarco may not have won an exchange, much less a round.

Two undeniable facts remain, however: One, Broner is not going to win every fight on God-given talent alone; and two, Golden Boy Promotions has done an extraordinary job of matching Broner against guys that'll make him look like the next Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Jury still out

Still, it's hard to ignore the Ponce De Leon fight.

Broner won it. But he looked anything like a future superstar. In fact, he just about put the crowd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. -- and a national television audience -- to sleep, as he played it safe and used his physical abilities to pile up points.

Is it a coincidence that Ponce De Leon is the most accomplished of his opponents? Don't expect to find out anytime soon.

Rees, 37-1-1 (18 KOs), fits the recent, familiar Broner bill: he is a pressure fighter, he is not very fast, he is a small 5-foot-7 and he will suffer from a whopping seven-inch reach disadvantage. Not surprisingly, he never fought anyone close to Broner's talent.

Look for Broner to dominate in much the same way he has over the past couple of years. He's got too much speed, too much power and too much raw ability for Rees to have any kind of shot.

This is strictly a "get-it-out-of-the-way" fight before Broner, hopefully, moves on to some real competition.